Island Air has hired 19 employees on Kauai for the resumption of Lihue service next week. Another eight new hires will be based at Honolulu. And eight of the total 27 new workers are *former* employees who have been rehired, including Leina Alcos, the Lihue station manager, and two shift supervisors.

New jobless claims are below 12 hundred for the seventh straight week – 1,183 with increases on Oahu and the Big Island offsetting declines on Maui, Molokai and Kauai. The 95 sugar layoffs will be added to the figures we get next week.

Dole Plantation has its Family Fun Day tomorrow – a free event with live music, hula, arts and crafts, prizes and food for sale, stew from Iliahi Elementary, waffle dogs from Leilehua. It's also the only day of the year everyone can do buy-one, get-one-free, for the maze.